Council to support plastic bag tax

The Takoma Park City Council will advocate for a 5 cent tax on plastic shopping bags throughout Maryland at the Maryland Municipal League's annual legislative committee next week.

Piggybacking on similar legislation passed June 3 by the Washington, D.C., City Council, the Takoma Park council will advocate in support of House Bill 1210, the Chesapeake Bay Restoration and Consumer Retail Choice Act of 2009, championed jointly in the D.C. Council by Councilman Tommy Wells and in the Maryland General Assembly by Del. Al Carr (D-Dist. 18) of Kensington, according to Deputy City Manager Suzanne Ludlow.

"The goal would be to encourage reusable bags in retail shopping centers and have a charge for using non-reusable bags … with some of the [tax] funds going to the store and some of the funds in this case going to the Chesapeake Bay restoration activities," she said.

The council did not approve moving forward with its original plan to suggest that the MML advocate for incorporating more county property into municipalities. Mayor Bruce Williams argued against Ward 3 Councilman Dan Robinson's belief that such a measure would be taken seriously by the league.

"In Annapolis, we might be looked upon as not having done our proper homework," Robinsons (Ward 3) admitted. "[But] really I'm of a mind to say … let's put it in there, and then we'll go about doing our homework and have the conversation begin and continue."

The move, which was based on a similar motion undertaken in Broward County, Florida, would advocate the incorporation of large plots of county land into municipalities in order to more clearly delineate county and city districts and coverage areas. The idea, while not without merit, would simply not fly, according to Williams.

"There will be a number of municipalities who will see it as a waste of time [at this point]," he said.

The MML will meet Sunday through July 1 in Ocean City. The next City Council meeting will be held at its regular time July 6.

The council also argued over the city's continued financial support to the Community Indicators Project, eventually agreeing to give the group $25,000 in 2010 to conduct two follow-up studies on health and the local economy after the group's initial study on housing priorities failed to live up to the council's expectations.

Councilman Reuben Snipper (Ward 5) and Mayor Williams voted against funding the indicators project, arguing that the results are not tied to the city in any way. The remaining three councilmembers (Ward 2 Councilwoman Colleen Clay was absent) tentatively voted to continue funding.

"My support for funding in the future years I think is, I would say, on a short leash," said Councilman Josh Wright (Ward 1) of his decision to support the project. "If the community indicators project doesn't bring in additional funds to go along with the funds we've been providing, I don't think I would support it in future years."